We had a little gathering here yesterday. Some new friends I’ve made since having Niblet (all with little ones of their own) and a few friends we’ve known for 6/7 years who we don’t see so much since having Niblet.

I made this sign on Niblet’s chalkboard to put in front of the conservatory window with the intention of hiding much of the crafty/papery mess that fills the conservatory (but doesn’t get used much in the winter as it’s freezing in there!!)

I don’t know if anyone even noticed it was there, but I rather like it and haven’t made any attempts to rub it out.

I didn’t really have much time to do baking, we bought in mince pies and sausage rolls. But I whipped up a batch of spiced nuts. I’ve collected many recipes for them over the year,s but never attempted them before. I looked at all the recipes, none of which were the same, and picked out the bits I thought would be best. I ended up using olive oil, honey, rosemary & thyme from the garden and a bit of cayenne pepper. They were very more-ish, easy and I’ll definitely be doing them again.

I also made a new wreath to go on the door of the dining room.

It does mean the ribbon wreath was relegated to the bathroom door (the only room upstairs the guests see) but again I rather like this one. (For an exciting crocheted wreath visit Lucy’s Attic) I made the base for the wreath earlier on this year from cuttings from the red dogwood bushes. I spent some precarious moments in the rain on Saturday trying to chop down bits of Eucalyptus from the tree at the bottom of the garden. The pinecones are from various walks, I always seem to end up with a pocket full, and the baubles just some that weren’t used on  the tree.

Talking of the tree, I noticed in the last few days that there have been tiny flies appearing in the front room and lots of strange bits of ‘stuff’ on the base around the tree. The tree has now been stripped of all it’s glory and is back in the garden. I spent most of this afternoon trying to get sticky ‘stuff’ and larvae/flies off the baubles and fairy lights.

Hubbie is hoping to bring home the tree from his school later in the week, when it becomes redundant as all the kids finish for the holidays. So with a bit of luck we will actually have a tree on Christmas Day.

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I have recently become aware of adverts appearing at the bottom of my posts. These are nothing to do with me, I don’t know why they are there or indeed how to get rid of them. I apologise.